{"id":1937,"date":"2018-03-29T10:09:33","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T14:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=1937"},"modified":"2018-04-11T09:49:39","modified_gmt":"2018-04-11T13:49:39","slug":"glorifying-the-golden-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/glorifying-the-golden-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Glorifying the golden years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Al Mott \u201958 was reading the Asbury Park Press <\/em>one morning when a photo grabbed his attention. It showed an older woman eating dog food out of a garbage can.<\/p>\n

Growing up with Italian parents, Mott had been taught to revere the elderly\u2014\u201cto literally consider them priceless,\u201d he says. So the photo rattled him. Why was this <\/em>the image of an older person that made the front page? And what could he do to counter it?<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to myself, what would happen if an older woman got as much attention as Miss America?\u201d he remembers. \u201cWhat would that do to her life?\u201d<\/p>\n

Now he knows. For more than three decades, the Ms. Senior America Pageant that Mott founded has encouraged hundreds of 60-and-older women to pull on sparkly gowns, tune up their talents, and embrace their \u201cinner beauty and outward charm,\u201d as Mott puts it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI created the Ms. Senior America Pageant for contestants who are 60 years and older,\u201d says Mott, pictured here with 2017 winner Carolyn Slade Harden. \u201cI tell them, you have reached the Age of Elegance!\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last fall, 39 state title holders arrived in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to vie for the national accolade. After a competition that included individual interviews, talent performances, evening gown presentations, and a \u201cPhilosophy of Life\u201d portion, Carolyn Slade Harden from New Jersey became the 37th woman to don the winners\u2019 crown. She\u2019ll spend the next year traveling to state pageants; performing in assisted living facilities, hospitals, and nursing homes; and speaking at venues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe women I\u2019ve met [through the pageant] are so devoted and enthusiastic about what they do and so thankful that there is an opportunity for them to express themselves and to participate and still be youthful,\u201d says Harden. \u201cI\u2019m glad [Mott] had the vision and the desire to do something for women in our age group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mott launched the pageant\u2019s earliest iteration in 1972 when he was running the Asbury Park Senior Center. It was a Monmouth County competition that first year, with a total of 18 contestants. Their average age? Eighty.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy message right away was totally opposite Miss America, totally opposite any pageant there was out there at the time,\u201d says Mott. \u201cFrom the beginning, we were looking for inner beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1980, Mott\u2019s inner-beauty contest went national. Now it operates as the nonprofit organization Senior America Inc., powered by entry fees, sponsors, and volunteers. This year\u2019s five-day finals in Atlantic City included not just the competition itself, but rehearsals, alumni events, a dinner dance, and a talent showcase of past winners.<\/p>\n

Mott says he\u2019s never spent money on advertising, nor has he placed a cap on the pageant\u2019s potential to grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no limit to this,\u201d he adds, \u201cand there\u2019s no limit to what this pageant does in contestants\u2019 lives. It\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before he founded Ms. Senior America, Al Mott had already enjoyed success as a recording artist, record producer, and band manager. You can read more about it here.<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

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 <\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Al Mott\u2019s Ms. Senior America Pageant celebrates women who\u2019ve reached \u201cthe Age of Elegance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":1942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"thumbnail":"\"\"","catString":"Uncategorized","issue":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1937"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2682,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1937\/revisions\/2682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}